Gramya Manthan Story#3 Wilderness in the village

-
One of the participants, Aarti shared in one of her reflections, that it was difficult for her mother to let her go beyond 300 metres alone as a child. While as she visited a family in the village - Kaki asked a kid, Anjali from the neighbouring home to accompany her to show around the village. And Anjali walked with Arti the whole day around the village. Two things struck with her, the sense of freedom and comfort that Anjali had with the whole village and the idea of ‘home’. Kaki felt comfortable asking a neighbouring kid take a guest around and the kid accompanied her all along. ‘Home’ felt somewhat expanded to Aarti in the village.

Environmental Wilderness obviously is endangered in our world, with forests being butchered and snow caps melting. However, the wilderness of the human heart is also endangered. Kids today are growing up in enclosed rooms with enclosed minds. Sedentary lifestyle is the order of the day. Trust in human relationships is encroached upon by transactional behaviour of economics.

We believe it is only when we move freely, wildly - we become open to learn, engage, have multiple perspectives and most importantly love with an open heart. Our exploration at Gramya Manthan is to get rooted in a micro reality and get connected to the large macro reality of human beings. Act locally, love globally.


Prince climbing the tree

Kids just know how to love more than adults


Collecting jamuns and khajoors


Bhargav watching the drama of life with his friends.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What would a thriving rural space look like?

-
Image
I consider myself really fortunate to have travelled to many parts of the country - deep travel and in some cases immersion. Our team at Youth Alliance just returned from Kanpur Dehat (rural) after having facilitated the 9th immersive journey  of Gramya Manthan for 28 young people from all over the country.   Let me give a quick context of the region - located in the heart of India’s largest (population-wise) state, about 20 kms off India’s oldest highway (Grand Trunk Road built in 1500s) and about 20 kms off India’s largest river (Ganga), the three villages - Kharagpur, Palia and Ganga Din Nevada are Hindu-dominated, caste-divided, mostly agriculture and animal husbandry dependent. Electricity and toilets have just made mere beginnings. Two of them do not have electricity at all. We have been utterly grateful for the people in these villages, to have given us so much love, acceptance and forgave us for our unconscious mistakes.  Participants from 14 states came to Kanpur
Read more

Learning to live consciously in 2016

-
Image
Recently I was in a workshop at Swaraj University about Rethinking Development and it was concluded with a Shamanic Ceremony. In the ceremony we were called to relate to an element in nature (like air, water, trees, animals) and feel their pain and express it to the one (among us) in the role of human beings, which each one of us took at different times. The idea was to revive our feeling of oneness with nature and again feel part of the one big family of the universe. I didn’t quite understand the ceremony, it didn’t hit me deep enough. But since I have come back from the workshop to Delhi, I have been disturbed. I am not able to settle in my erstwhile smooth life here. I don’t enjoy chores as much as I used to before I went to Udaipur. I don’t like to buy/handle stuff at home, in the kitchen. There’s a strange relationship I am feeling with gadgets. It feels like I have begun to notice and witness some violence and pain that has been unleashed on our planet, other living beings i
Read more

Reflections from 2019 and Embracing 2020

-
Image
8 days into 2020, I have been reflecting on the year gone by as much as I seed for the year that has come. Writing this reflection made it more accessible for me and revealed certain aspects of me that I am so fulfilled about for 2019. This in a way also gives a closure to 2019 and letting me open myself to embrace 2020. What shifted? Friendships - Somewhere in the middle of the year I intended to un-plan my life - learn to ride with emergence and give spaciousness to friendships and relationships. Through the last 6 months of 2019, I found myself unwinding in relationships - taking space and rushing through. I experienced warmth, joy of togetherness and a sadhana of discovering deeper together.  Primary Relationship - One key change that I notice is in my primary relationship. Several miles covered with parents getting involved. Feels its way more rooted - we are coming together in deeper ways to engage with life while creating space for each other too. I feel grateful
Read more